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FTC Okays Social Media Background Check Company
nonprofiteer writes "The FTC has dropped its investigation of a new company that runs social media background checks and ongoing Internet/social media monitoring of employees, determining its compliant with the Fair Credit Reporting Act. So make sure your gun photos are private and that you're not part of any 'Legalize marijuana' Facebook groups."
And it begins muahahhahahha. First your boss makes you friend him on face book, now your future boss wants to know everything about you that isn't his business.
There's nothing illegal about owning and being proud of guns (at least in the US)...so I don't get this comment on the article.
It isn't like being a gun owner would prevent anyone from getting a job or anything...never heard of that one.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
How about making sure you don't work for someone that'll fire you for being part of a legalize marijuana FB group?
Grammar nazis are to this community what excrements are to gold.
Yeah illegal. ... in real life.
It's not a technical shortcoming of facebook's that you can't compartmentalize your presence, like we do
I will not work for a company that wants to bring their home drama to work with them. Simple as that.
since they lost 6 million users in the last month alone.
People are starting to realize that too much information can be a bad thing. (Aside from how many times you need to hear some long lost classmate bitching about their job or kids).
The current American mentality is witchhunt first, then never, ever forgive. Felon? Employment-wise, you're hammered. Forever. Sexual *anything* to do with the law? Employment-wise, you're hammered. Forever. Anything that the social retards think isn't Good for the Children? I'm talking drinking, drugging, tattoos, piercings, partying, "planking", nudity of any kind, shooting, marching for any particular cause, flash mobbing, pranking, sexting, imitating the cognitively-impaired people on Jackass, extreme sports... or even being THERE when someone ELSE is doing any of these things... employment-wise, you're hammered.
And if, for some reason, things aren't quite that bad yet, don't worry, they'll very likely pass ex post facto laws to make it so later; just as they already have with guns and the various lists -- do not fly, do not sell to, violent/sexual offender, terrorism. And they'll conflate ridiculous things too - 17-year-old == child == peeing in bush, etc. You can do the most innocuous thing that you think is perfectly ok -- like photograph your cute little infant in the tub -- and end up with your mug shot right next to Victor the Vaginal Butcher, unemployable and forced to move into a box under that bridge downtown you've been throwing your coffee cups over the past few years.
So... you don't appreciate StupidBook becoming a threat to your job and you life and your family? Get out before it happens. Delete everything on your page before you go, and un-friend everyone. It's all you can do. It won't be enough - this is truly becoming a permanent record society that never, ever forgives, criminalizes the ridiculous, and no longer even gives lip service to the ideas of forgiveness or rehabilitation - but it's a start in the right direction.
Also - speaking as a photographer of many years - stop photographing people. Just stop. Nature, old, non-governmental architecture, that's the thing to shoot. Photography is turning into the next minefield. Same thing goes for video, if you're into video. Not just because it might harm you; but because it also might harm them. You might photograph someone in a place they really would prefer others not know they were, for whatever reason... you might catch that funny drunk guy, share the pic, and cause him to lose his job and livelihood and really, really hurt his entire family... or you might shoot that lovely government building you paid for and find yourself answering very hard questions from very hard people about why there is a bottle of bleach under your sink and ammo for your 22 cal. match rifle in your closet, said people showing up right at your job, complete with warrant from their pet oath-breaking judge. Followed immediately by your very own pink slip, because employers are hugely threatened by such events. And now you're unemployable. Welcome to America 2011.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
Yes. Unfortunately, it is also very bad advice.
The exposed nail gets hammered down, and very much so in US employment today.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
Some of us actually have friends though, so your solution won't work for us.
Quite astute of you, sir. It was nearly impossible for anyone to have any friends before Facebook was created, and likewise nearly impossible to keep in touch with any of them prior to Mr. Zuckerberg's fine accomplishemt.
And now that Facebook has been created, all previous forms of communications that any of the very very few people who DID have friends have been disabled, effectively preventing anyone who is not on Facebook from having any friends at all.